id's groundbreaking shooter still shines.
Before last week, I had never played the full PC ersion of Quake. I had played through the Quake demo via shareware, and also the Quake port on the Nintendo 64, but never the complete PC experience in all its glory. Despite the fact that it debuted in 1996 and has since been buried under a deluge of first-person shooters, Quake has aged well. It's fast, furious, and atmospheric. Although not as good as some of the greats that followed, Quake remains a fun and frantic shooting experience that, at the time of its release, broke new ground for the genre.
Like many computer first-person shooters from the early and mid 1990s, Quake is more influential than it is great. Quake accomplished a lot for the genre, more in fact than Wolfenstein 3D or Doom, both of which predate it. For one, Quake existed in a fully three-dimensional world with polygonal models instead of pre-rendered sprites. This introduced new depth and distance into the first-person shooter: players could negotiate levels by leaping over obstacles or swimming beneath them; they could bounce grenades off walls to destroy out-of-sight enemies. Also, Quake was built on an engine that was highly modifiable, allowing users to alter its script to create fan modifications, or "mods." And lastly, Quake popularized online multi-player modes like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.
Beyond its influence, Quake is an excellent game, especially in terms of graphics and sound. Animations in Quake are smooth, seamless, and completely natural. Enemy models, however grotesque, are artfully crafted; they have texture, weight, fullness. All of the 28 levels in Quake are similarly dazzling, albeit in a menacing kind of way. Illuminated by revolutionary lighting effects, each level is well-balanced and ingeniously packed with hidden compartments, traps, and other surprises. Adding to the ominous atmosphere is Nine Inch Nails, which was brought on to the Quake project to provide music and ambient noise. The result is a scary, moody game that keeps it players constantly on edge.
Quake is far from perfect, however. It represents the best and the worst of PC shooters of its era. It's fast, furious, packed with hideous enemies and awesome weapons, dripping with atmosphere; but it's also repetitive, unchanging, mostly plotless. Nearly all of the truly great FPSs came after Quake, once developers started infusing shooters with new ideas borrowed from other genres, e.g. objective-based missions, puzzle-solving, storytelling.
So Quake isn't the best first-person shooter ever; but it's arguably the most influential. Many of the generic, taken-for-granted elements in modern games -- modifications, online multi-player, fully-realized three-dimensional worlds -- were made popular by Quake. It's earned its place in the pantheon of great games, and in the hearts and minds of thousands of fans.
Before last week, I had never played the full PC ersion of Quake. I had played through the Quake demo via shareware, and also the Quake port on the Nintendo 64, but never the complete PC experience in all its glory. Despite the fact that it debuted in 1996 and has since been buried under a deluge of first-person shooters, Quake has aged well. It's fast, furious, and atmospheric. Although not as good as some of the greats that followed, Quake remains a fun and frantic shooting experience that, at the time of its release, broke new ground for the genre.Like many computer first-person shooters from the early and mid 1990s, Quake is more influential than it is great. Quake accomplished a lot for the genre, more in fact than Wolfenstein 3D or Doom, both of which predate it. For one, Quake existed in a fully three-dimensional world with polygonal models instead of pre-rendered sprites. This introduced new depth and distance into the first-person shooter: players could negotiate levels by leaping over obstacles or swimming beneath them; they could bounce grenades off walls to destroy out-of-sight enemies. Also, Quake was built on an engine that was highly modifiable, allowing users to alter its script to create fan modifications, or "mods." And lastly, Quake popularized online multi-player modes like Deathmatch and Capture the Flag.
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| Give the ogre a taste of his own medicine: the grenade launcher. |
Beyond its influence, Quake is an excellent game, especially in terms of graphics and sound. Animations in Quake are smooth, seamless, and completely natural. Enemy models, however grotesque, are artfully crafted; they have texture, weight, fullness. All of the 28 levels in Quake are similarly dazzling, albeit in a menacing kind of way. Illuminated by revolutionary lighting effects, each level is well-balanced and ingeniously packed with hidden compartments, traps, and other surprises. Adding to the ominous atmosphere is Nine Inch Nails, which was brought on to the Quake project to provide music and ambient noise. The result is a scary, moody game that keeps it players constantly on edge.
Quake is far from perfect, however. It represents the best and the worst of PC shooters of its era. It's fast, furious, packed with hideous enemies and awesome weapons, dripping with atmosphere; but it's also repetitive, unchanging, mostly plotless. Nearly all of the truly great FPSs came after Quake, once developers started infusing shooters with new ideas borrowed from other genres, e.g. objective-based missions, puzzle-solving, storytelling.
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| Floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee. |
So Quake isn't the best first-person shooter ever; but it's arguably the most influential. Many of the generic, taken-for-granted elements in modern games -- modifications, online multi-player, fully-realized three-dimensional worlds -- were made popular by Quake. It's earned its place in the pantheon of great games, and in the hearts and minds of thousands of fans.
Score: 8.5
Oh my days flashback!! Like Unreal this one really tested my PC back in day - lol... look how far we've come! They did a great job when they created this one :)
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